1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a piezoelectric element including a thin fired piezoelectric body having a high flatness degree.
In recent years, there has been demanded a displacement control device which regulates an optical path length or position of the order of submicrons in the fields of optics, a precise machine, semiconductor manufacturing and the like. To answer this demand, there has been advanced the development of a piezoelectric device such as a piezoelectric actuator which utilizes a strain (displacement or deformation) occurring on the basis of a counter piezoelectric effect or the like when an electric field is applied to a piezoelectric body, or a piezoelectric sensor which utilizes the generation of charges (polarization) occurring on the basis of a similar effect when a pressure is applied to the piezoelectric body.
The central core of the piezoelectric device is made by a piezoelectric element in which a piezoelectric body is sandwiched between electrodes. In this element, the piezoelectric body can be prepared by forming a piezoelectric material into a film-like shape by a thin film process and firing the material at a high temperature (hereinafter referred to as the fired piezoelectric body). When a type of a material to be added to the piezoelectric material is appropriately selected, it is possible to obtain the fired piezoelectric body having a high piezoelectric constant and causing a large displacement. Moreover, when the piezoelectric constant is high, a necessity of thinly forming a fired piezoelectric body to obtain predetermined characteristics decreases, and hence a handling performance enhances. On the other hand, the piezoelectric element constituted of the fired piezoelectric body which can obtain the large displacement can be miniaturized and is preferably applied to the piezoelectric device having a power consumption or a response which changes in accordance with a weight thereof, and a product using the device.
2. Description of Related Art
Examples of prior art technical documents concerning the piezoelectric element include Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2001-68751) and Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2006-60000). Patent Document 1 discloses a piezoelectric actuator having a structure in which a piezoelectric element is bonded to a metal plate. Moreover, Patent Document 2 discloses a method of manufacturing a piezoelectric element in which electrodes and a piezoelectric body are laminated on a dummy material and then the dummy material is removed to obtain the piezoelectric element.